BJ Upton is the Rays’ nominee for the Hank Aaron Award, the bogus award that is supposed to be the hitting equivalent of the Cy Young Award, but instead MLB turned it into a money grab with sponsors and fan voting. [TampaBay.com]

Dewayne Staats is one of seven finalists for the Hall of Fame’s Frick Award for broadcasting excellence. [TampaBay.com]

Speaking of stadiums, Tropicana Field was judged to have the 7th cleanest stadium in baseball. [UFE.com]

Jack Moore of CBSSports.com includes the Phillies, Mets, Cubs, Rangers, and Braves as possible landing spots for Upton. We can already scratch the Mets from that list who are not going to be adding any big money free agents anytime soon. And the Cubs seem unlikely as they are trying to get younger and cheaper. [CBSSports]

11 Comments

It's strange but I would not do the Shields-Andrus trade now. Maybe next July. It's not a bad deal, but I'd rather look for a better deal this winter or get half a season more from Shields. Maybe I overrate Shields, but we will probably not get fair value for him in any trade and he is part of a rotation that can win 90 games without an offense. Shields is 30 and immediately becomes the Rangers best pitcher while we would get a 24-year old SS with a good glove, nice OBP but below average OPS+. Good speed, no pop. I like Andrus - it's just hard to get a position player to offset the loss of a top of the rotation pitcher that consistently pitches well over 200 innings. Hold onto Shields til July and then pull the trigger if possible. I know that offensively the Rays are no fun - but the Orioles needed the best one-run record in history to beat us. I think we can duplicate our 90 wins next year and it will be enough.

Problem is that come next July, we're still in the hunt and won't pull the trigger on any deal for James. I think his value becomes higher to us next season and makes it more difficult for the front office to trade him. We need a full season of a quality bat, not just half a season.

Hey Cork when are you planning to update that trade value index chart?

I depended on that to let me know about who is locked up and for how long.

For once our bullpen looks like it may have some stability.
Rodney has another year. Mcgee and WD40 are locked up for multiple years.

The guys on the block(I think), Farnsworth had a kind of down year and may not get great offers, JP has had so much injury time he may not command much, Peralta doesnt have wow stuff he's just a grinder so may not get alot on the open market, Hopper? maybe we have 2 years on him? but Mr. Groundball gave up alot of long balls so I could take him or leave him regardless.

We will always scrounge up a few specialists off the non tendered heap to fill the holes.

Not every guy can be expected to have career years in 2013 as most did this year so the pen probably won't be as great but can be very good again. But maybe our bullpen will look similar to start next April, for once.

Cork can jump in here and drop some knowledge but Price is till in his arbitration years - 6 years at the major league level. And he has 4+ years right now, so he is eligible (again) for arbitration this offseason. We avoided it last year by agreeing to a deal. I believe we should have him at least this year and next. I imagine we'll try to lock him up long term before then but it will be difficult since he's one of the best in the majors. Cot's website doesn't mention specifically how many more years a team has rights to a player so it is a little tricky to figure out sometimes.

Pransky writes the key question: the projected bump in attendance isn't worth the cost of a new stadium. The Rays (and the local governments) would be better off with an outright subsidy to the teams. (Louisiana does something similar wiith the Sains, guaranteeing ticket sales).

Live attenadance is yesterday's war. TV revenue is what really matters. The sooner the Rays realize that, the better off they'll be.

For those of you dreaming about Channelside, dream on. There is no way the hockey owner is going to let a competing sports franchise in his kitchen once he acquires Channelside. If baseball moves there, the hockey team dies within 3 years.